honeybeeinthecity: adventures in spontaneity.

i apologize for my recent lack of updates. the past few days have been such a whirlwind. 2000 miles driven, 6 states covered, 1 best friend riding shotgun, 1 too-tiny car transporting us, 1 best friend lost in the process, 1 love recognized, and hundreds of throwback songs from nkotb, nsync, etc.

sunday morning at 9am, Shannon and i delved into 2 grande iced coffees with soy from starbucks and we headed on our way. northbound on I-65 and headed to the midwest. we trekked our way through St. Louis and Kansas City, and found ourselves pulling up to Casey's house at 7:30pm. after settling in, saying our hellos, and washing our dirty faces, Casey, Shannon, Eric and I piled into Eric's Ford Focus and headed for 23rd Street Brewery in Lawrence, Kansas. We had a wonderful meal and headed back to the house. We called it an early night seeing as we were exhausted from driving 10+ hours. Upon waking up Monday morning, Shannon and I got ready and headed east to Kansas City, KS. We went to Casey's place of work, Seen Merch, a screenprinting warehouse. We hung out for a bit and then headed to Legends outdoor mall for some shopping. What i do best! We drove back to Kansas City [This time the Missouri side] and went to The Plaza and saw 500 Days of Summer [I recommend it. Oh how I love Zooey Deschanel]. Afterwards we did some more perusing and headed back to the warehouse, had a little makeshift photoshoot and then we all went back to Lawrence. The night was going well for the most part. Lil' Josh, Shan, Casey and I went to grab dinner, got some drinks and came home. By the time we got home Casey and I had a little bit of a scuffle, as we always do. You have to expect those things when you've been best friends with someone for 5 years. One thing lead to another and by 10:30pm our bags were packed and we were headed east. I had walked out on him and never looked back. 3 days strong.

After 60 miles of driving and texting my lovely friend Josh [aka Jewsh], we found ourselves heading 200 miles/3 hours north to Des Moines, Iowa at midnight. we arrived at Jewsh's house at midnight and he was a lovely host. We were very grateful. I had not seen Jewsh since November so it put a smile on my face. We hung out, slept, and departed earlier than I would have liked. By 1:30pm we were back on the road. This time headed for home, Tennessee. We took an alternate route, which in turn made me unable to hang out with Nick, so I was bummed out. Next time maybe. it was 800 miles to go and it took us about 13 hours. We pulled into my driveway at 2am Wednesday morning. Shannon really came through and drove the last 4.5 hours of the trek. I had no idea how uncomfortable my passenger seat in my Solstice was! Shannon also braved some incredible lightning and some not so incredible rain on the drive, too. We came straight inside and passed out in bed. It felt so good to be back in my own way-too-cozy bed.

I'm very grateful that we made it home without incident, AND without being pulled over once! Brilliant! It was such a spontaneous trip, but mainly because plans got rattled and we just had to go with the flow. Going wherever we wanted, no itinerary. I'm so blessed to have been able to do such a thing. If you're ever presented with the opportunity to just go do something, please take it. Don't take times like these for granted. I'm definitely looking forward to my next adventure and I've become quite content with long interstate drives. By the way, Iowa has some of the most beautiful scenery ever.